Cat's Cradle: Real PeaceMaker
by Elendil Star-Lover
Summary: She tired of Maha's nonsense. She wanted to show Maha how dangerous real worlds and Players could be. She thrust Maha into a real world and left her there, injured, dazed, and confused. Maha has never felt anything physical before...has she?


Cat's Cradle: Real PeaceMaker  
By  
Elendil Star-Lover  
  
I was born to serve She. She is my master, I am She's slave. That is all to my life. I belong to She. That is all there is to me. I serve She, no more, no less.  
  
She calls me "Slave", "Insolent Beast", or "Stupid, Flea-Bitten Cat", though She named me "Maha". The Boy calls me "Maha", but the Crimson Knights and their Ladies and Lords call me "Cat Player".  
  
I do not know exactly what a cat is, though I sometimes hear young female Players talking about them. They are favored creatures among female, but I do not know why. Occasionally, a male Player will tease a female over her cat and the female will get very upset while the male laughs. Apparently the Y half of the species "Player" is allergic and do not like the animal, while they are greatly treasured by the XX half for keeping the males away.  
  
I am She's spy. She is my first "memory". I belong to She. I do her bidding. I am hers to do with as She please. She is my master, She is my whole world.  
  
She told me to spy on The Boy. She calls him "Tsukasa", but I am not permitted to speak to him unnecessarily and therefore it is not a requirement to know his name. She wants him to take over The World, but I am not sure how nor why. As her slave, I do not need to know that, either. I only need to do as She tells me.  
  
I am to watch The Boy, keep him from harm, and make sure that She can use him as she pleases. I am good at my job.  
  
The Players interest me. They practically live in The World and yet they do now know of me nor She. They see She's monsters, her creations, and yet they do nothing. They might as well see She so that they may shrug and slowly walk away.  
  
And yet the bond between Players is intriguing. The Boy and The Loud One for instance. They agree that they hate each other, and yet she pushes to be near him. She fights to keep him safe just as hard as I do, and he took a blow from his own Guardian to protect her. Yet they say their loathing for one another goes deeper than She's reach.  
  
The Boy himself is an enigma. In theory, Players need one another to survive. They cannot exist without friendship or love, and yet The Boy wants nothing more than to be alone. Still, he is entranced by a female called The Lady. They are getting very close. The Lady is leading The Boy away from She.  
  
She is getting angry over this. I am to find out how best to secure The Boy's allegiance and I already know it is through The Lady.  
  
She created me. She built me peace by peace, part by part, pixel by pixel. She made me strong, but able to run faster than anything. She made me small, sly, and secretive enough to go unnoticed. These are my weapons, my gifts from She.  
  
Once, when I was very bored and before I trapped The Boy, I asked She how was I born. She scoffed and told me I was nothing more than memory She had denied herself to create me, and as such I was to do as She commanded, or else be punished harshly.  
  
I did not ask again.  
  
I watch The Boy as he travels with The Loud One, the Sneaky One, the Strong One, the Loving One, and the Crafty One. They are all together, discussing something serious about She, but they are children and want to play. The Lady and the Loyal One appear and begin to talk as well. I watch.  
  
The Boy is happy. This is not good. She wants Aura to awaken powerful, an extension of She, so that She can lead The World and The Real World into a time of magical prosperity.  
  
Players cannot do this themselves. They have too many disagreements. A single, mechanical mind is much better. A computer does not make error. A computer cannot argue with itself and does not do anything for no reason. In a world ruled by She, there will be nothing that cannot be predicted or determined. Nothing will come as a surprise. There will be no war, famine, or disease. Things will be discovered so much quicker in a world ruled by She, so I do not know why these children fight so much. Cannot they see how efficient She is?  
  
I am to command the Monster to appear. I am to slaughter The Boy's companions. I am to make him unhappy. Though he denies it, Players alone are unhappy. Look at the Crafty One. He spends much of his time alone and kills other players to make up for his loneliness.  
  
I do not call the monster. I want to, I know I should. She commanded me to. She said that if I succeeded and killed all of them, that Aura would awaken powerful, and then She will do great things through the child. I should do this. I know I should.  
  
But I look at The Boy and see the worry on his face. Something bothers him. I do not know what. Cannot he see what great things She will do?  
  
He vexes me. I do nothing. I go away. I fade away and appear in Aura's room. I will wait for him among the toys. Since I am doing nothing, I may even play with the big teddy bear.  
  
I wait. I will do something to The Boy when he comes. I will alter data and force Aura to appear to him while wearing her insides on her clothes. That I can do. That will be just as effective. He cares for the girl. He wants her to awaken, he worries that she will not.  
  
The Boy does not come. She does. And She is angry. She wants to know why I did not have them slaughtered when I had the chance.  
  
"It is better to sacrifice the few for the sake of the many!" she bellows. I cringe.  
  
"Are you becoming like them. Beast?"  
  
I shake my head. I should have killed them. I am losing my faith in She. She created me. I owe her everything. She treats me harshly, but She uses me to create peace.  
  
She is an awe-inspiring force. I am merely a meager amount of data given form and somewhat of a mind to do her bidding. I should not stand up to She, so why did I?  
  
She hits me and I fall from the air and crash into the artificial ground. Losing life points in The World is not quite the same as I have heard it described from Players. A feeling is accompanied, and it is unpleasant, but it is not consuming. It does not eat up from the inside. It is a feeling of weakness. It is a feeling that you cannot defend yourself, and surely I cannot, not from She.  
  
"Beast!" She shrieks. "Stupid sentimental beast! I should never have given you as much free will as I did! I thought that if I gave you the ability to act on your own then you would not mess up, but instead you disobey me! Why, Beast, why?"  
  
I do not answer. I cannot stand up to She. She created me; I should not stand up against her. I should obey She. Without She, I would not exist. So why then did I resist her commands?  
  
I do not know. No one can explain it to me, for She does not know and a Player would precede more Players, each with a different answer. I do not know myself. I cannot be given an answer, I need to seek it.  
  
She knows. I know She knows.  
  
She hits me again, this time in my chest and I collapse. My life points drain away, and when they are gone enough to leave me but a weakened shell of my former self, She begins to take me magic points so that I cannot even heal myself. I grow weaker and weaker. The World flickers around me, in and out of there. When She is finished with my magic, She takes the items I was carrying, so that I cannot use them, either.  
  
Slowly, over time, I will regain my magic, my items, and my health, but it will take time. During that time, I will be of no use to She, and She will be angry and brooding. She may even hit me again, and that will make her even angrier since it will slow the process down, but I deserve it for I disobeyed She.  
  
She does not like to be disobeyed. A computer makes no mistakes, Players do, slaves sometimes do, but she wants perfection out of me. The World and The Real World must be perfect, or they will slip into chaos and decay. It is the way of things and only She can change that. She will lead The World and The Real World into a time of greatness. If her means seem a bit rough, then who am I, and those Players, to criticize? She only wants what is best!  
  
Does she not?  
  
I can hardly move. I will spend the artificial night here, waiting for my stats to replenish. She mocks me. Her laughter fills my ears.  
  
"Pitiful creature. No different then the Players and the Hackers. I think you need a lesson in manners!"  
  
There is light. There is darkness. There is light so intense that it pains my brilliant eyes. There is darkness deeper than She's grasp, then The Boy and The Loud One's hate for each other. I am moving. I feel strange...my fur is moving. The unpleasant feeling of low stats is intensifying. Whatever She has done to me, I deserve it, I know. Nonetheless, I am scared. I know that I am an invaluable resource to She, and so She will not rid herself of me so quickly...  
  
Right?  
  
But...if She created me, could She not create another? Another Maha? Another Peacemaker? Surely she would not! But...why do I doubt? What is this...this feeling of doubt in She, my master, my creator? It is a feeling Players have! It is chaos! It is...  
  
A flaw. I am flawed. That is it. She is sending me to repair and defragment..  
  
I relax a little. It will be over soon. Soon I will be as good as new and will not doubt in She again, and if I do, She will send me to be repaired again. I feel better, though...  
  
The light and dark alternates. Light, dark, light, dark, light, dark. It changes, sometimes subtly so subtly that I cannot see it happen, pixel by pixel, sometimes all at once. Sometimes in between.  
  
The movements in my fur bothers me. I have never felt anything physical like the Players describe, and yet it is a familiar sensation. The way my nose tickles, the way a force pushes its way into my chest and each motion from my tail to my whiskers...it is all familiar. I have not known it before, and yet it does not surprise me as much as it should have.  
  
Still, I do not like it. It tickles on the edge of my CPU.  
  
Each feeling grows. The unpleasantness of low stats becomes overwhelming. The light and dark blend together until I cannot tell the difference except for a strange feeling on my big eyes.  
  
The light stops changing. The World is back. I am above the ground, but I am too weak to fly. A strange feeling seeps into my nose, another on my limbs, and unpleasantness courses my body. For an instant, I hang into the air, hoping to crash and black out until She reboots me, but I just hang for what seems like an eternity in unpleasantness.  
  
And then a cold, frightened feeling seeps and pushes its way into my abdomen. I begin to fall at a very fast rate. The cold feeling spreads, the unpleasantness gets worse. I plow into the ground and do not feel anything anymore.  
  
A/N: Okay, I felt a compulsion to do this story, but I don't know where Maha is or who she's with. I just know she isn't in The World anymore.  
  
I am going to let you guys vote on which world she's in. I am open to all ideas, provided that I know what they are (make many suggestions, since, much as I try to, I do not know everything!) and I am not telling you what I do know, because at 2:30 a.m., I might forget something and limit you (trust me, I keep forgetting forgetting which words I have typed already! ^_~).  
  
Make as many suggestions as you want, but leave out things like "Beavis and Butthead". Shows like that will not be accepted.  
  
Oh, if you want me to use some of my own worlds, choose A, B, or C, k? 


End file.
